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Arctic Youth Photo Exhibition at two locations during Olympics

The Portraits of Resilience photography project is part of the Many Strong Voices Programme. It illustrates the human dimension of climate change through the words and photographs of children in four Arctic communities: Shishmaref, Alaska; Uummannaq, Greenland; Nesseby, Norway; and Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada.

The goal of the project was to give these young people a voice in the United Na-tions Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations – and to put a youthful, human face on climate change in the Arctic. The main message in this work is that people in the Arctic are not helpless victims of climate change. If anything, this exhibition shows that youth have a profound sense of place and a strong desire to see their cultures and communities survive and thrive.

Portraits of Resilience opened in Copenhagen in December 2009 at the National Museum of Denmark and is now on tour and currently exhibiting in Oslo at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History.

During the Olympics, the exhibition will run in two Vancouver locations:

The opening at the 2010 Olympics will take place at 2 pm on February 21st at Canada’s Northern House with guest speaker Simon Awa, Deputy Minister of the Department of Environment for the Government of Nunavut and performances by Inuit throat singers and drum dancers. This is a free event and open to everyone.

The Many Strong Voices Programme (MSV) was created in 2005 to bring to-gether indigenous peoples, community organizations, policy makers, NGOs and researchers from the Arctic and Small Island Developing States. One of its key goals is to make sure the voices of people in these vulnerable regions are heard in United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.

MSV thanks the following organizations for their assistance and support:

Nordic Council of Ministers

Communities of Shishmaref, Pangnirtung, Ummannaq and Ungàrgga/Nesseby

The Embassy of Canada in Denmark

Government of Nunavut

GoNorth

Land is Life

First Air

Constant Arts Society

The Many Strong Voices programme is coordinated by GRID-Arendal and the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo (CICERO).

For more information about Many Strong Voices, visit the web site at www.manystrongvoices.org or write to voices@grida.no.